


Probably Toxic Gas

by I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Death by Fumes, Deathfic, Gen, Grief, Semi-Graphic Acidic Mist in Eyes, Vanqor AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-30
Updated: 2018-08-30
Packaged: 2019-07-04 13:26:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15842217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning/pseuds/I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning
Summary: Obi-Wan and Anakin do not escape Vanqor unscathed after all.





	Probably Toxic Gas

**Author's Note:**

> Because I'm running through Clone Wars again, and Anakin and Obi-Wan very nearly died on Vanqor.

It acted fast.

Obi-Wan could feel it corroding his lungs, carving through his arteries, depriving him of the ability to take in oxygen, and filling his lungs with blood.

He had to get Anakin out of here.

On hands and knees, he reached for the collapsed cave front, tried to seize another bolder with the Force, but he couldn't feel the rock, couldn't _find_ the boulder with his mind, and his eyes were burning—

His head sank, blood drooled from between his lips, and he closed his eyes, trying to pull himself together.

“Come on, Obi-Wan, don't give up now—”

Obi-Wan looked to his brother, saw his eyes were bleeding, the top layer eroded away by the mist.

Anakin was still standing, and Obi-Wan couldn't understand how—

And then the Hero with No Fear collapsed to his knees. “No,” Anakin mumbled. “I refuse. Not here.” He lifted his hands, calling to the Force. “Not like this.”

Obi-Wan convulsed against the stone, wishing he could help.

_I have no strength, no finesse left—_

But he did have _life._

He _could_ give _that._

Anakin wrenched another boulder away with the Force, but it only revealed another behind it. No sky, no clear air—

Obi-Wan could feel Anakin's horror and despair, and his ever-increasing pain.

Obi-Wan gathered the essence of himself, remembering how Master Fay had done the same for him.

_Thank you for saving me then, so that now I can save him._

Obi-Wan sent his all into Anakin, the other so wounded and weakened that he did not even notice.

Obi-Wan smiled as he let himself go.

_It is a fair trade._

 

* * *

 

The infusion of power gave Anakin the strength needed to explode the rock face outwards, drawing air into the cavern. It also allowed him to focus inward, neutralize the molecules wrecking his body.

He couldn't heal— had never been able to, so all he could do afterwards was lie curled on the ground, trying to cling to life until Ahsoka arrived with a medic.

She did.

It was only after two weeks in bacta, and longer drifting in and out of consciousness that he was finally aware enough to recognize someone was missing.

The bond hadn't been torn apart. Since Obi-Wan had given him his life-force, Obi-Wan had guided it through their bond. The action had rolled the bond back into Anakin's own mind, and it sealed itself naturally behind, since Obi-Wan was _inside,_ no longer without.

So when that lingering touch of Obi-Wan faded, all that was left was a naturally sealed place where a tether to Obi-Wan had once lived.

It did not leave Anakin any less grief-stricken, and he even hated that his mind had suffered no injury, wasn't bleeding all over the place and requiring emergency aid, because it almost felt _wrong._

Part of a Jedi being mourned was seeing the terrible carnage left behind.

Anakin's only carnage was blindness, and his brother no longer at his side.

Though late in the nights, when the silence allowed him to hear his thoughts, that loss was carnage enough.


End file.
